When inventor Ross F. Housholder filed his patent1 in 1979 for “forming a three-dimensional article in layers”—the process that would become 3-D printing—I doubt he envisaged his creation becoming as affordable and widely used as it has. Today, 3-D printers create everything from replacement human organs to rocket parts, food, and even self-replicating printers.2 We have the privilege and good fortune to be living in a golden age of information and technology in which we can access the collective knowledge of the human race instantly, carry supercomputers in our pockets, and see today’s greatest innovations become old news overnight. Through technology we have the means to enrich our work and leisure time in ways people even just a few years ago could only have dreamed about. It is easier, cheaper, and quicker than ever to create technology products in both software and hardware, and the pace of innovation is still accelerating. Standing in the eye of this maelstrom are product managers.
Product managers are there to marshal the chaos, to calmly remind everyone caught up in the technological gold rush that all this headlong product innovation can’t exist just for its own sake; it has to have a purpose: to enrich the lives of the people who use the technology. Product management is one of those professions people tend to end up in more by luck than by design and then discover it’s right for them. The role has never been more necessary or in demand for both technology startups and more established companies, and this is an exciting time to be a product manager.
This book is about the art, science, and skill of product management. The world doesn’t need yet another textbook introducing a methodology or framework on the subject, so I haven’t written one. In fact, much of what you’ll read in the chapters that follow will provide you with helpful examples of what not to do. I will give you the inside track on avoiding all the product management pitfalls I’ve stumbled into over the years.
I’ve collected some of the most intriguing stories I could find to illustrate to you what product management is really all about, and to tell you from my own personal experience not only how to be successful at it, but how to enjoy it. I’ll tell you how the role came into being, how it’s continuing to evolve, and why it’s such good news that there’s no prescribed route to becoming a product manager. While I’m at it, I’ll show you how to determine value with a half-empty bottle of water and how Maslow made me a safer motorcyclist.
This book is also about products, so we’ll delve into examples of the good, the bad, and the ill-advised to learn why they succeeded or failed. Navigating the fine line between product success and product failure is one of the trickiest parts of the job, and I’ll introduce the product manager’s set of navigational tools, including the nine most effective ways you can increase your product’s chances of success. We’ll look at how a Japanese professor devised a way to predict customer delight, the story of the hundred-million-dollar assumption, how a riddle from ancient Greece can bring your product greater success, and how woodworkers and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN can help you determine your target market. I’ll uncover how focus groups nearly caused the Reebok Pump to be stillborn and how difficult it can be to avoid testing bias in Rwanda. I’ll also clear away some common misunderstandings about Lean Startup theory and show you how Apple and Google create their minimum viable products (MVPs) the right way.
The launch of a product is an art form all its own, and we’ll take a look at the many lessons leading brands have learned the hard way in launches, and how even Apple, the master of the craft, could orchestrate a stunning failure. I’ll show you why a humble roadmap is the best way to help a team stay on course, and we’ll look at why you sometimes need to fail, why you should look forward to a good crisis, and why Netflix deliberately sabotages its own systems from time to time.
What kinds of people will you be working with? We’ll take a look at the full team, and I’ll draw on the many lessons I’ve learned the hard way to help you survive unscathed and even enjoy the experience. I’ll share with you how situational leadership made me a better manager, why emails are as addictive as slot machines, and why sometimes you just have to say no to people.
Because there are so many people and parts of the process to keep track of, managing time may be the most foundational skill of a good product manager. I’ll share the methods I’ve found most helpful, revealing why there’s no point in trying to multitask; why so many of us, including myself, have a natural tendency to procrastinate and how to overcome that; and how an ancient paradox can help you manage complex tasks more easily. Thank you for accompanying me on this journey. May it be as enjoyable for you to read as it has been for me to write.